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by COGNITO_ERGO_SUM (orphan_account)



Category: SOMA (Video Game)
Genre: Everybody Dies, Loneliness, One Shot, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-20
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-25 16:56:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7540594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/COGNITO_ERGO_SUM
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Hart! No!" Too late.</p><p>The story of the evacuees of Theta.</p>
            </blockquote>





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**Author's Note:**

> Hello everybody! This is my first fanfic, so please feel free to tell me about anything I am doing wrong.
> 
> There is a character committing suicide and some violent deaths, so please read at your own discretion.
> 
> Finally, I would like to make it clear that SOMA is the intellectual property of Frictional Games.
> 
> Please enjoy!

“Hart! No!”

Too late.

The minute Hart taps the touchscreen mounted on the tanks, everything explodes. You feel yourself being thrown around like a ragdoll in the current. Hell, you can barely see everyone else. Strasky, Jonsy, Alvaro…just shadows in the deep, dark blue of the sea.

Seconds and decades later, you lie on the seafloor outside Theta.

“What happened? What did she do?!” you hear yourself yell. Your vision clears, showing you a horrific tableau. The Theta-Omicron tunnel is absolutely shredded, as if by the hand of some vengeful god. You’re no chemist, but you know the only thing that could have caused an explosion of that magnitude is an explosion fueled by pure oxygen. And Hart did something to the emergency O2 tanks – she must have figured out how to detonate them.

You can’t afford to think about this now; you need to get to Omicron first. You can see Strasky and Alvaro getting up, and you follow suit. Jonsy has to be pulled up; Akers cut her open during the evac. Wan blasted him with a fire extinguisher, but the damage was done.

“Come on, we’ve got to get her out of there!” Strasky yells as he jogs over to a pile of debris. You can barely see Hart’s legs sticking out from beneath it.

“Holy shit, Hart blew up the O2 surplus – she sealed the tunnel!” Alvaro exclaims, confirming your suspicions.

“She really didn’t want Akers following us to Omicron,” you remark.

Of course, it’s not that hard – just overload a circuit connected to the tanks. But there are safeties in place to prevent that sort of thing from happening. Then again, Hart was the only member of the Lambda salvage team to survive, so she must be smart enough to figure it out.

Right now you have other things to do than think of the events of the immediate past. You gaze over to see Strasky pulling the debris off of Hart. “Ah shit, she’s fucking hurt,” he says, trying to keep the worry out of his voice. It doesn’t work. Everyone can see how badly Hart is injured, and it’s not pretty.

Hart’s left arm and leg have been blown clean off by the explosion. Her suit will compartmentalize the leaks, but there’s still a possibility she’ll bleed out, not to mention probability of infection…

And her O2 tube is ruptured. Even with almost-full tanks, she won’t survive unless she gets immediate medical attention. And the nearest medical facilities are at Omicron, which is almost a quarter of a kilometer away.

Alvaro notices Hart’s damaged oxygen hose. “Her suit is leaking.” She breaks out the emergency patch kit for the diving suits. It’s not enough – the kit is designed to seal small breaches, not gaping holes.

“We have to get her to Omicron!” yells Strasky, now fully panicking. Of course he’s freaking out; they were both Dispatchers, in charge of PATHOS-II site-to-site communications. They both knew each other like the gear they worked with…they were friends, maybe even more.

By now, Hart is bleeding badly. Blood is rushing from her severed limbs like structure gel from a burst pipe. “Shit, it’s bad, real bad,” Alvaro says, slowly losing her nerve, panic seeping into her voice.

“No, fuck! No–!” Strasky moans as Hart’s blackbox registers a full vital signs flatline.

He falls to his knees sobbing. “Fuck…fuck…”

You are all silent. Hart was an incredible person, always optimistic and ready to cheer you up when you felt like you couldn’t go on. You remember that Hart helped Catherine to start smiling again after Sarang killed himself in the Pilot Seat. You remember her laughing after a good joke with the normally morose Bass, the same Bass that slit her wrists open in her bunk three weeks later.

You remember these things, and you remember that Vanessa Hart is dead.

After a while Strasky stands up. His eyes are red from crying. Everyone can feel Hart’s death. Jonsy is staring down at the ground in sorrow, visibly affected by the death of her fellow dispatcher. Alvaro is standing there biting her lip, waiting for Strasky to speak. As Theta’s dispatcher, he’s the highest ranking member of the evac party.

“Alright,” says Strasky, despair evident in his voice. “Let’s go.”

 

* * *

 

You leave Hart’s body where it is. You can come back later for it if you have to, but the extra oxygen used for pulling Hart to Omicron is not something you can afford to lose. You, Jonsy, and Alvaro follow Strasky’s lead as he trudges through the murky depths of the Atlantic.

It is Jonsy who breaks the awkward silence. It’s very unexpected; Jonsy was always the quiet one, the one who worked until the crack of dawn relaying messages from Dispatch.

“What do we do when we get to Omicron?”

Strasky is silent for a moment. Finally, he answers.

“I don’t know, Jonsy.”

You all know what will happen. With no reason to launch satellites, Alvaro is useless, just like she was back at Theta after the comet crashed. Strasky and Jonsy, as Dispatchers without a station, might be able to get maintenance jobs, but you doubt it.

And you’ll do what you’ve always done as a Mechatronics Engineer. Fix things. Fix the UHs, the Pilot Seats…just keep on fixing things. Fix until the day you take your final death and become just another memory in the void.

“Hey Richard…Richard?”

“Yeah?” you say, snapping out of your reverie.

“We’re almost at Omicron. Can you try hailing them?”

“Sure thing, Alvaro,” you reply, opening the comms channel. Site-to-site communications have been spotty ever since the LUMAR probes started failing, but it’s still there.

“Hello…Omicron?”

There is only static on the other end.

“Omicron, this is Mechatronics Engineer Richard Thabo. We are 100 meters out with injured, requesting airlock clearance.”

More static. Something is clearly wrong. The Dispatcher at Omicron should have picked up by now. You should be inside Omicron right now, getting Jonsy medical treatment. You should be safe and inside a pressurized environment by now. You should be at Theta right now.

You should be at Theta right now.

 

* * *

 

"We're here."

Omicron is an oasis in the desert of the seafloor, a concrete and titanium lighthouse in the dark.

Strasky runs up to the entrance. "Omicron, this is Theta Dispatcher Peter Strasky, requesting immediate access. Do you copy?

It is only then that you see the red quarantine signs.  _Shit._

Strasky shares your sentiments. "Oh,  _fuck_...We were so close! So fucking close!" he yells.

You try to calm Strasky down. "Calm down, it's not the end of the world."

"Fuck you! _Fuck_ you, Richard! We're going to die down here, and there's nothing we can do about it!" Strasky screams.

"Well, we could try the annex," Alvaro notes. "We could override the quarantine from there and refill our tanks."

Strasky takes a deep breath. "Okay. Let's go."

The four of you circle around to the annex. You climb up the ladder into the airlock. Immediately, you wave your Omnitool over the entry panel. You wait and...

OFFLINE.

You try to pull the MANUAL OVERRIDE cover off of the wall panel, but it refuses to budge.

Goddammit. God fucking dammit. For a moment there you thought you could actually get inside. You were going to get Jonsy medical treatment and the rest of you some nice, warm coffee. You were going to be far away from the fucked-up mess that was Theta. You were going to be fucking  _safe_.

“Annex isn’t working,” you sigh, climbing down the ladder. “Manual override isn’t responding. Gel must have jammed the pipes.”

Strasky is cursing up a storm. “Shit fuck shit shit fuck…can we try direct access?”

“We can try, but it might not work,” Alvaro notes.

"Worth a shot." But you know it isn't.

 

* * *

 

 “Hey, come on, OPEN UP!” Strasky screams, desperation tainting his voice like blood on a sheet of paper.

“What is this shit, armored for the apocalypse?!” he screams as Alvaro helps Jonsy to sit down near the entrance.

“Omicron is in quarantine,” you say before Strasky can interrupt you. “This is why they didn’t answer our call.”

Strasky ignores you. “HELLO!!!!” he yells into the comm channel. _Idiot._ Like it’ll do him much good.

“Christ, Strasky,” you sigh in exasperation. “It’s called a radio. They’re not going to hear you better if you scream.”

Meanwhile, Alvaro is kneeling down to talk to Jonsy.

“Jonsy, you okay? Look, I know you’re the strong silent type, but I need you to say something every now and then so I know you’re alright.”

“Jonsy…Jons?”

Jonsy doesn’t respond.

Amidst Strasky’s manic screaming, you can see red staining her suit. She’s bleeding out from the wounds caused by Akers. You listened to Komorebi long enough to know that unresponsiveness is a sign of going into shock, and Jonsy’s low tank isn’t helping in that regard.

“Fuck’s sake,” you snarl, surprised at the venom in your voice. “Let’s try the annex again – maybe we can break in.”

Emma turns to face Strasky, panic gleaming in her eyes. “We’re losing Jonsy. We need to get her inside.”

“Well, get the _FUCK_ in line!” screams Strasky. He’s panicking more and more with each second that goes by – spittle stains the inside of his helmet like rain on a windshield.

You place a reassuring hand on Alvaro’s shoulder. “Alvaro, there’s nothing we can do for her right now. Hit the stasis switch and let’s check the annex. We can come back for Jonsy later.”

Alvaro sighs. “All right…” She pulls the stasis handle mounted next to Jonsy’s helmet. It’ll slow the oxygen flow of her suit long enough for you to figure out a way to get her inside.

At the very least, it’ll grant her a peaceful death.

 

* * *

 

As you approach the annex for the second time, you think about why Omicron is under quarantine. Maybe some virus or something killed the crew. Maybe they had something like Akers and locked it down to prevent it from getting to Theta. _Real helpful, guys._ Maybe it’s just a malfunction and they’re right inside.

But you doubt that.

“If this doesn’t work, we’ll try the back entrance,” you suggest.

Strasky doesn't reply as he clambers up into the annex.

You can hear thumping and cursing over the radio, and five seconds later Strasky jumps down

“It won’t fucking open! And nobody’s answering to anything!” cries Strasky. “What kind of coldhearted motherfuckers would just leave us out here to die?!”

“Don’t you get it, Strasky?!” snaps Alvaro. “They’re dead. They are all dead.”

And that – _that_ – is the exact thing you’ve known ever since calling Omicron on the radio. Omicron is dead. They’re all dead and you’re going to die out here. Maybe you didn’t want to face it, maybe you wanted to think that they might still be alive and that you might survive. But you knew they were all dead.

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Strasky gazes between you and Alvaro, mouth agape. “What…how…how the _fuck_ can you be so calm about this shit?! We are dying!”

Alvaro ignores him. “How much air do you two have?”

“Twenty minutes, tops,” you reply.

“Hey, I’m at red!” Strasky yells. “Seconds until the CO2 gets me.”

“Strasky…” Alvaro warns, trying to keep him from doing anything risky.

“Why wait, right? I am…”

“Wait, Strask, what are you doing–”

“…the master…” Strasky reaches up to his helmet.

“Strasky, no!” you yell.

“ _of my own fate!_ ” Strasky removes his helmet.

The effect is instantaneous. Strasky sinks to his knees, bubbles streaming from his mouth. He claws at his throat, panicking as he realizes he chose the wrong way to go out.

Too late.

Strasky twitches and convulses like a puppet trying to dance with one too few strings. He writhes in agony like a man possessed, the Atlantic seawater destroying his lungs from the inside out.

It is horrible and terrible but you can’t turn your head away or even stop listening

– until finally the horror show ends, and Strasky’s corpse collapses on the ground.

You spend a few moments staring at what was once the man named Peter Strasky, before snapping back to reality.

“Come on, let’s try the back entrance,” you say, trying to keep Alvaro focused on survival and not her imminent death. “Alvaro?”

“Alvaro?”

Alvaro is standing near the edge of the abyss, looking into the murky waters.

“The world is dead, Richard. Even if we got inside Omicron, what’s left? Grab a couple of power suits and head for Tau?”

“Strasky, Jonsy, Hart…everyone is dead, and we are right behind them. We’re probably the last people left behind. The last moments of mankind,” she concludes mournfully.

Alvaro’s suit’s oxygen alarm blares in your ear over the radio. “No oxygen left. Better sit down. Don’t want to fall into the abyss,” she says, sitting down as she talks.

You try to comfort her. “There are worse ways to die…probably.”

There’s something you’ve been thinking about for the last few minutes, something you’ve decided to do. But before you can do it, a thought pops into your head.

“Why do they call you M?”

Alvaro turns her head to hear you. “Huh? Oh. It’s for Emma.”

Emma Alvaro. Astrodynamicist Emma Alvaro. “Emma Alvaro. I like that, it’s a good name. We should have hung out more, I think we’d have made good friends.”

Emma sighs. “Thanks. I would’ve liked that.”

As she takes her final breaths, you say farewell.

“Goodbye, Emma.”

You jump.

You jump into the abyss feet-first. You start sinking fast, faster than you would’ve thought. The last thing you hear is Emma saying “Bye, Richard…”

 

* * *

 

It happens slowly. First, your touchpad cracks, then shatters. The pressure makes your ears pop.

You remember Brandon. Sure, he was an asshole sometimes, but he was a nice guy. He was always cracking jokes and telling insane stories about Delta as you ate.

The connection between your tank and oxygen hose begins to crumple. Your suit shrieks in protest of the weight of the water.

You remember Alice. She always was near Brandon, even when he was working. They were probably a thing; you never cared about it until now. But you remember that she was always helping everyone out with their problems, always trying to see the best in things.

The hose snaps off entirely, fleeing from the ruined tank, which is now being crushed into a small ball.

You remember Jonsy. Always quiet, but she was probably one of the smartest people you’ve ever met. Even when trying to evacuate, she kept calm when everyone else was screaming their head off.

Your faceplate begins to crack, the faint hissing of air escaping filling your helmet.

You remember Strasky. He was always incredibly nice to everyone, even Catherine. Even after his scan, he was still cheerful. He always listened to your problems, always chatted with you whenever you felt like it.

By now your faceplate is a tangled web of cracks. In a few seconds, it will explode.

You remember Imogen Reed. Your friend. Your coworker. Your fellow Mechatronics Engineer, who was always ready to help you when you burnt out a fuse, who laughed with you at dinner after you nearly fried yourselves with electromagnetic waves from a Pilot Seat. Although she never returned from Lambda, you remembered her whenever you looked over at her workstation. Her love of nerdy pop culture. Her jokes. Her smile.

You remember Emma.

You remember these things, and just as your faceplate shatters and you black out from the pressure, you remember the distinct feeling of being home.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I've finally finished this fic. Sure, there was tons of delays, and it might not be the best, but I still managed to get it done.
> 
> Please leave kudos and/or comments!
> 
> EDIT: I may edit this in the future for grammatical errors and other minor details, so don't be concerned if you notice some changes.


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